A busy year in the Wing Commander community has come to a close, so it's time for another annual tradition. The CIC Web Site & Fan Project of the Year contests help to recognize the numerous contributions of our fellow Wingnuts. Below is a list of major undertakings that made an impact in 2012, although it's certainly not an exhaustive list of all the incredible things that fans accomplished over the past year. On to the nominees!

Web Site of the Year

Pix's Origin Adventures is amazingly dedicated to all things Origin. Pix is constantly researching old material, digging up cool oddities and sharing new insights into the Wing Commander series and its sibling franchises. His archive is neatly organized by game, and troves of information are available in just a few clicks.

Shotglass' Bar fills the need to keep German fans in the loop. Germany has historically been one of the largest markets for the WC series, and they stay on top of the latest news here.

Tactical Operations is an awesome fan made tabletop Wing Commander game, and it continues to be refined into a slick online package. Basic coding is virtually complete, and a game manager is coming soon.

Wedge's Wing Commander continues to see incremental updates to help Wing Commander fans stay on top of things. The site moved to a new web host, added new WC patches and updated its interface and presentation in recent months.

Wing Commander RPG Wiki is the headquarters for capi's fan made role playing game. In addition to rules for playing the game, it's also packed with information about the WC universe. There are also other resources to help aspiring fans of tabletop WC play.

Fan Project of the Year

The Collected works of CMDBob highlight classic Wing Commander 1 ships in a charming animated style. It'd be great to see these in more than just wallpapers someday.

The Collected works of Cybot are numerous and diverse. His models cover everything from the Academy TV show to Privateer, and they highlight understated buoys and transport craft just as much as massive dreadnoughts.

The Collected works of NinjaLA adds a hand-made touch to Wing Commander fan art. His Wing Commander sketches are also timely as they are prolifict as they often commemorate news or special events in the WC universe.

The Collected works of ScoobyDoo have a distinctive metallic style that has contributed to the fleets of multiple fan projects this year. When he's not helping out various mods, the results are very creative hybrids inspired by famous WC ships.

Enigma 2666 has been one of the more consistent mods over the last year. It's seen steady progress that's added many more ships and implemented them in the game engine.

From the Jaws of Defeat is a case study in how to set a goal, work hard and release a fan product in a timely fashion. It's an audio adventure that stars voice actors from around the community - hopefully the first of many!

Klavs' (Physical) Models aren't just beautiful on screen. Via rapid prototyping, a handful of Wing Commander ships can be yours for tabletop gaming or desk ornamentation. This is still an emerging technology, and there are high hopes that more complex designs will be possible as model size increases and cost decreases in the coming years.

Wing Commander Saga concluded a decade of development with the big release of their highly anticipated game in 2012. The game garnered much attention and fans hope for ports to be released in 2013.

Recent Updates

Banshee Kicks Off Flat Universe's Border Worlds Faction

The first Border Worlds ship for Wing Commander Flat Universe has been announced! The Banshee now joins the battle alongside four Confed and four Kilrathi craft. It's designed to be particularly effective against slower bombers such as the Broadsword or Grikath. (2018-02-21)

New 3D Prints Highlight Gemini Sector Hotness

Sonnich Johannesen has shown off some large scale and beautifully detailed 3D prints from Wing Commander Privateer. The Centurion and (not pictured) Galaxy are from Astrofossil and the Tarsus model was designed by DJFX, who posted some gorgeous pics of his own a while back. The size of each of these is impressive, and Sonnich has posted some neat pictures of these ships coming together on the printer. (2018-02-20)

Paper Cruiser Returns Stronger & Better Armed

Adm_Maverick's Tallahassee papercraft cruiser is back again in a whole new way. This second major iteration improves on the first in a number of ways, including how the main hull fits together. It also has interior components that form the bow-mounted capship missile launcher. (2018-02-19)

Live Wing Commander Jazz Recording A Huge Success!

Origin composer George Oldziey has completed his live recording of Wing Commander jazz music. The event was conducted last week at George's studio in Austin, and pictures from the day make it look like they had a lot of fun! Initial results also sound fantastic, and we're anxious to hear how everything comes together in the finished album. (2018-02-18)

RPS Highlights Origin Fandom

Rock Paper Shotgun has run a neat article on longtime Origin collector Joe Garrity. There's a really interesting Q&A that delves into how Joe got started many years ago buying up spare copies of Ultima games and meeting with their creators. It also highlights some of the good work that fans have done to preserve historic material, such as our 2008 trip to archive Origin source documents at Mythic or the assistance Wingnuts gave Raylight to develop Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance. (2018-02-17)